Understanding motion

Objective:
The objective of this experiment was to understand the concept of the motion along the straight line by determining the rate of change of displacement and velocity with time of an object that has constant acceleration.

Introduction:
Motion is a continuous change of position with time. When an object moves along the straight line we describe its position with respect to an origin. If the object starts at position x1, at time t1, and arrives at position x2, at time t2, the objects displacement is a vector quantity whose x component is x= x2 x1. The displacement doesnt depend on the details of how the object travels between x1 and x2. The rate of change of position with respect to time is given by average velocity, a vector quantity whose x component is

As the average velocity is calculated for progressively smaller intervals of time t, the average velocity approaches the instantaneous velocity Vx:

When the velocity of an object changes with time, we say that the object has acceleration. Acceleration is a vector quantity that describes rate of change of velocity with time. For objects with velocity V1x, at time t1, and velocity V2x, at time t2, the x component of average acceleration is As with velocity, when the average acceleration is calculated for smaller and smaller intervals of time t, the average acceleration approaches the instantaneous acceleration ax.

When an object moves with constant acceleration in a straight line, the following two equations describe its position and velocity as function of time: and In these equations, x0 and V0x are, respectively, the position and velocity at an initial time t = 0, and x and Vx, are respectively, the position and velocity at any later time t. The final position x is the sum of three terms: initial position x0, plus the distance V0t that the body would move if its velocity were constant, plus an additional distance at2 caused by the constant acceleration. The following equation relates velocity, acceleration, and position without explicit reference to time:

Experimental procedure, Part 1:

Using a 120 cm wooden plank supported by a thin book at one end, flat smooth incline with approximately 2 degrees angle was created. A steel ball was used as an object that rolls freely down the incline. Incline was covered with the blank white paper for charting the motion of the ball. The ball was positioned at the top of the incline when relisted from rest to roll down freely. The person that was operating the stopwatch called out times every second. As the times were called out, another person marked the location of the ball on the paper with the black marker. When ball completed the journey end time was recorded. After that total displacement of each mark from the starting position was measured and recorded on the data sheet. After the data was collected, Microsoft Excel was used for analysis. Average velocity and average acceleration of the ball during its trip were calculated using the equations from introduction part. For the graphs, exponential trend line was used to fit displacement versus time graph, and linear fit was used to show velocity versus time.

Results, Part 1:
Data time interv al 0-1 1-2 2-3 3-4 4-5 5-6 time (t) 1 2 3 4 5 6 displacem ent x (cm) 5 15 30 50 80 120 t 1 1 1 1 1 1 x 5 10 15 20 30 40 average velocity Vav (cm/s) 5.0 7.5 10.0 12.5 16.0 20.0 instantaneou s velocity Vx (cm/s) 10 15 20 25 32 40 V 10 5 5 5 7 8 , as

Average acceleration ax was found from the equation: explained in the introduction part and was ax = 6,67 cm/s2.

The values for Instantaneous velocity Vx were calculated from the equation:

Graph 1. Displacement vs time

Graph 2. Velocity vs time

Discussion/Conclusion, Part 1:
The methodology of this experiment was concluded to be somewhat successful. There is a clear trend in both graphics and are matching the assumptions made before data collecting. In graph 1 displacement of the ball is increasing by each second during its trip along the incline, starting with 5 cm traveled distance in interval from 0 to 1 second, and ending with 40 cm in 5-6 second interval. However, velocity shows other trend by increasing constantly over time with approximately same amount. This is due to a constant acceleration during the trip of the ball. The experiment could be improved by using more accurate equipment for data collection. For example, directing the ball to move in the straight line or using more precise method for recording the balls position on the incline for each second of its trip. A future experiment could include such procedures.

Experimental procedure, Part 2:

Metric tape was used to measure 2m vertical high. From this point ball was dropped and the stopwatch started measuring time simultaneously. When the ball hilted the ground stopwatch was stopped and the time-of-flight was recorded. Same procedure was repeated with steel, wood and aluminum ball 5 times. Recorded time-of-fight was used with the 2m vertical height to calculate the average acceleration. Following equation was used: The average acceleration values were compared with known value of 9.81 m/s2 , and %error was calculated using formula, to check the quality of collected data:

Results, Part 2:

ball steel

wood

rep accelerati s time on 1 0.64 9.77 2 0.66 9.18 3 0.66 9.18 4 0.62 10.41 5 0.65 9.47 1 0.63 10.08 2 0.67 8.91 3 0.65 9.47 4 0.61 10.75 5 0.63 10.08 1 2 3 4 5 0.64 0.62 0.68 0.64 0.67

%err or 0.45 6.39 6.39 6.07 3.49 2.73 9.17 3.49 9.58 2.73

alumiu m

9.77 0.45 10.41 6.07 11.8 8.65 2 9.77 0.45 8.91 9.17

Graph 1. Average acceleration

Discussion/Conclusion, Part 1:
Graph 1 shows that there was no significant difference in acceleration between different ball types. It needs to be pointed out that all ball types had the same air resistance. For instance, if we would use the feather, which by the way is not air resistant, instead of wooden ball we would certainly had the different results. It can be concluded that all objects at a particular location fall with the same acceleration, regardless of their size or weight. The methodology of this experiment can be improved. Percent error between the values that we observed and standard value of 9.81 m/s2 reached 11.82%, which is

over the acceptable 5% level. This error mainly occurred because of human inability to start and stop the timer on the stopwatch at the exact time when they occur. Error can be reduced by increasing the height from which we will drop the object or using more accurate technology that will be able to precisely measure the travel time of the falling object.